Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, scrapped his proposal to make the Holy Bible the official state book before it could go to a full vote of the state House of Representatives Monday evening. The bill had become a distraction, he said.

In introducing the legislation, Carmody always maintained he was not taking steps to establish a state religion, but rather to educate people. Critics have accused him of foisting faith inappropriately into the government sphere. Others thought such a designation would trivialize the Bible and its importance.

Initially, Carmody had just been intending to designate a specific, historic copy of the Bible, which he thought could be found in the Louisiana State Museum, as the official state book. But lawmakers amended Carmody's legislation two weeks ago to propose making any copy of the "Holy Bible" the official state book.

Designating the Holy Bible the official state book would have been largely a symbolic gesture. It wouldn't have affected how the government is run or Louisiana residents' day-to-day lives. Louisiana citizens would have not, for example, be made to read the Holy Bible if it had been designated the official book of Louisiana.

For this reason, legal scholars have said it might be hard to challenge such legislation in court if it had passed. "You can promote religion so long as it doesn't rise to the level of establishing a church," said Keith Werhan, a constitutional law expert at Tulane University Law School.

Declaring the Holy Bible as the official state book of Louisiana would not have been very different than the president evoking God's name in his State of the Union address or putting the phrase "In God we trust" on U.S. money, according to Werhan. "Throughout history, the Supreme Court has not gotten worked about these types of things," he said.

Douglas Laycock, a nationally-recognized expert on religious liberty, agreed with Werhan. "Judges are likely to think that this is de minimis - to minor to care about. They don't tell the president that he can't issue Thanksgiving proclamations or host a national prayer breakfast, and judges are likely to view this the same way," said Laycock, who teaches at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Both Werhan and Laycock also said it would have been difficult to find someone who would have standing to sue over such a law, since the proposal wouldn't force particular individuals to engage with the Bible.

"It's not like a government-sponsored prayer at a public meeting, or a government-sponsored religious monument in a particular place, which burdens the particular individuals who attend that meeting or frequent that place. This would just sit there in the statute books, affecting everyone in Louisiana more or less equally. That often means that no one can challenge it in court," said Laycock.